That was Peer Chacko on Thursday morning, speaking to the small group that makes up the city’s Thoroughfare Committee. The city’s assistant director for long-range planning was offering a preview of the PowerPoint that will make its way to the council’s Transportation and Environment Committee this afternoon, which is available below. He spoke about the progress made in the past three years, of pilot projects and open houses and Better Blocks; he recapped the highlights of the Complete Streets Design Manual and mapped out the proposed Complete Streets in the upcoming bond package; and he invited them to this weekend’s Knox Street temporary redo, which will involve installing two lanes of cycle tracks that will separate bicyclists from motorists and reconfigure the head-in spots on the street’s south side to angled parking.

Click to enlarge the a rough sketch of the Complete Streets Vision Map that can be found in this afternoon's presentation below.

Speaking of: That Good, Fulton & Farrell video you see above (and may have seen almost a year ago) will be named one of the winners of the Complete Streets Visual Essay Contest at Thursday’s open house. I won’t spoil the other winners for you. But they’re in the briefing below. Or on the city’s website. (Congrats, kids! You too, Jorge.)

A change is gonna come, Chacko promised … some day, some way. But for some, it won’t come fast enough; for others, it won’t be big enough. “And for some,” he cautioned, “the changes will be imperceptible.” After all, as we’ve noted before, changing Dallas’ streets won’t be easy; far from, given the myriad owners above and below the concrete. Implementation, he cautioned, will involve “a concentrated effort over time.” Besides, he says, the manual will undergo “one more thorough re-draft” before it’s presented to council for a final vote; and that discussion alone could take a while.

Still, he said, the manual offers “the paradigm shift we were aiming for.” By which he meant: The city began looking at all of its major thoroughfares, examining how they were used — by whom, when, why. Some are crowded at peak hours, he said, and “the rest of the day, they’re underutilized.” Said Chacko, the manual is “not policy, not law, but a guide for policymakers” — and one, he says, that could be used to lower speed limits on some streets and up ‘em on others.

“Most streets are designed so it’s uncomfortable driving slower than 40,” he said. Streets, he said, are “designed for marginal safety,” and perhaps “we need to design streets for the speed at which you want people to travel.” And, he would later insist, “Reducing speed can improve traffic flow.” Said Chacko, the simple fact is street engineers “are ready to try new things that will get public acceptance.”

He spoke Thursday for a good hour about the presentation below; he’ll reiterate many of the same points at 1 this afternoon, and you can listen in for yourself. Till then, get to reading, before the council members get to questioning.